By Jim Berkowitz, CRM Mastery

In Overwhelming Under Use of Great Sales Tools, Scott Jones has shared a list of some of his favorite business development technologies and services; tools that have been successful for him over the years. Here's an excerpt from his post:

There is certainly more marketing and sales tools out there than anyone can possibly get their individual arms around. The trick? Dialing in the optimal combination of tools to use that give the most bang for the buck (time and dollars).

It is impossible for the majority of senior-level marketing and sales executives to adequately explore many of these new tools. They're just too dang busy.

Unfortunately, this scenario is reminiscient of the woodsman that is so busy sawing down trees with a handsaw that when someone comes to show him a chainsaw, he simply has no time. How much easier and productive would the woodsman's life would be if only he could find a minute to recalibrate?

It's too bad too because there are some unbelievable tools (technologies and services) out there. I'm sure that there are some that I have yet to discover myself. But I have finally dialed in the combination that works best for me.

Scott goes on to list the software and services within the following categories:

- Marketing Tools,
- Prospecting/Research Tools,
- Sales Management Tools,
- Sales Execution Effectiveness Tools, and
- Presentation Tools

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I still see companies looking to hire "strong closers" and people saying that their sales force is "bad at closing".  This is seems odd to me because closing a deal in my opinion is still by far the easiest part of the sales process.

If you have conducted your sales process correctly, closing is in fact very intuitive to everyone who has not been trained in some outdated form of sales training.  If you have conducted your sales process correctly up to this point, you actually have a prospect who has stated they have a need and that your product/service can match that need.  All you need to do now is "close".

So let me teach you how to close (some might consider this a $1,000 value if you believe you need a sales training course to learn how to close!)...Do what you do in all your other business interactions and meetings: agree on actions to move forward and do them.  Congratulations you are now a "Top Gun Closer"!

Really, that's what it takes to close a deal.  It's about setting actions to get to a contract/order and doing the things that the buyer needs you to do to get him/her there.  That's why I say it is so easy...it's intuitive to all business people with a modicum of business experience.

If there are areas of doubt in what you need to do to get the contract/order, ask the appropriate questions that you instinctively think of as a business person.  By asking these obvious questions you are doing the right things to close the deal.

Now, here's what you should not do.  Do NOT use any "closing techniques" from any "old school" sales training programs or books!  Do not use "presumptive closes" or "alternative closes" or "Benjamin Franklin closes" (yes, there is such a thing!).  If you want to understand why should avoid these, read this great post by Jill Konrath, on her Selling to Big Companies blog.

So congratulations, if you can avoid learning any closing techniques, you are a natural-born "Top Gun Closer"!

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

By Jim Berkowitz, CRM Mastery

In How CRM Can Create Sales Warriors, the following is noted:

The current mantra from nearly every software vendor today is "we automate processes." That's great, but what has anyone done lately about making relationships matter again in sales? Not a whole lot. In what looks like a desperate push to stay relevant to C-level executives, software vendors are claiming that streamlining processes generate ROI. While this is certainly true, one CFO of a major truck manufacturer summed it up when he asked me "...so which software projects generated which portion of the ROI?" To that question in his company, there is no honest, crystal-clear answer.

For CRM to grow "relationships" have to become dominant again. Sometimes it seems CRM now stands for Customer "Re-engineering" Management. What's needed isn't yet another iteration of best practices charts, graphs and the like; what's needed is a fundamental shift in how CRM sees their effectiveness. All this has to happen by re-visiting how the best salespeople work.

In watching the best salespeople work, here is what becomes apparent:

Relationships rule over process.
The best salespeople have simple, manual systems that have relationships in the center, not just transactions.
Cherry-picking CRM features.
Integration rules.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been reviewing resumes recently for sales positions at one of my clients and I cannot believe how poorly written some of them are.  About a third of the resumes contain glaring and repeated spelling and grammatical mistakes. 

The two most extreme examples of poorly written resumes went far beyond pure mistakes in English:

• Example 1: I received a resume that was a template where the candidate had not completed the customization.  So it literally said "I feel I am a good fit for [fill in the job]" (and the words "fill in the job" were actually in the resume), then it went on to say "because of my skills in [fill in the skills]"

• Example 2: I received a resume that had come from LinkedIn so I went to the candidates LinkedIn profile.  In the person’s profile a found the candidate had only one endorsement (testimonial).  And the testimonial read "John, I do not remember you, so how can I give you a testimonial"

I am a pretty forgiving person but how in good conscience could I proceed with interviewing these people? As a Sales VP I cannot escape the vision of these individuals sending out emails and marketing materials to my prospects!

So sales people, when you are (a) applying for a job or (b) sending out communication to your prospects and clients, please make sure that your correspondence does not contain any glaring errors in content, logic, grammar or spelling. 

Sales people do not have to be the "Bard" of their company but they do need to get the basics of communication right!

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)